Thread: What happens if a Coil Spring Breaks

When we did the canning stock route in 2010 there was a Pajero stranded at Well 17 with 2 broken rear (aftermarket) coils. Between breaking the coils and driving slowly to the nearest camping spot (Well 17) - he had managed to put a hole in his long range tank and do some other damage.

A vehicle in our party snapped a front shock turret which caused the coil to pop out. We refitted the coil and used ratchet straps to retain it. The shock on the other side had failed but was still in place - which meant for a very bouncy ride from the front end.

Originally Posted by justinc

I have seen 1 coil broken in all my years of working on these vehicles, and it was an aftermarket item.

Mine too!

Didn't someone on this forum break a spring on the Donohue H/W near Boulia,with disastrous effects?

I've seen broken mounts and collapsed coils and even a snapped hockey stick but Ive NEVER seen an OEM coil spring or quality after marked one broken in a landy, every other component of the suspension yes, but never a coil spring..

Other makes however.

I have been driving cars with coil springs for over fifty years, including over 500,000km in my current 110. In that time I have seen exactly one broken coil spring (in a Ford Laser that did only urban driving), but quite a few broken leaf springs. None of the broken springs, coil or leaf, disabled the vehicle.

A broken coil spring is one of the less likely things to hold you up.

And while welding using batteries is quite useful, welding a coil spring is not likely to be much use - the welding heat will soften the adjoining material, and a further failure can be expected almost immediately.

John

John I was going to write something similar:
-Even using pre and post heat and lo-hy rods (all which would be less likely in the scrub)
-And then say overlapping the fractured ends 100 to get some coverage and grinding some good vees into the coil
-Id give it 10km of corrugations on a loaded vehicle before fracking again!

Hmmmmm
I go plenty of landy coils banging around maybe I should cut and weld one and chuck it in for a drive just for research purposes

Just for a little bit of tech - if you are going to do some trackside DC welding 316SS rods are a good choice
They dont mind dissimilar metals with sub standard prep as much as GP rods

S

surely no one would be thinking about welding a coil spring????

JC

Originally Posted by justinc

surely no one would be thinking about welding a coil spring????

JC

Broke one (aftermarket) in the 80's on a Woods Point trip RRC rear spring,
overlapped the broken ends by about 180 degrees. held in place with jubilee clamps, stitch welded, put back , moved the heavy stuff into another car & drove home no problems at all